There have heretofore been known apparatus for sterilizing a vessel being fed by a feeding apparatus by irradiating the vessel with an electron beam from an electron beam irradiation apparatus (see, for example, Patent document 1, Patent document 2, and Patent document 3). Patent document 1 discloses a vessel feeding means having two parallel rails for slidingly suspending and supporting the neck directly below a flange on the outer circumferential surface of the mouth of a vessel such as a PET bottle or the like. The parallel rails are provided by a rail member having a recess defined therein in a range corresponding to the transverse width of an EB (electron beam) irradiation chamber. The recess is covered with a thin web of titanium film to make up for the interruption in the rails without obstructing the irradiation with the EB.
Patent document 2 discloses an invention relating to a feeding means having two wires which is disposed in an irradiation chamber. The two wires are moved to feed a vessel in an upright state.
Patent document 3 discloses a feed conveyor including a ring-shaped feed gear mounted on an inner circumferential surface thereof, support posts vertically mounted on the ring-shaped feed gear at given spaced intervals, and a ring-shaped guide ring mounted on the upper ends of the support posts. Neck guides are mounted on the guide ring at respective positions which correspond to the pitch intervals of vessels, whose necks are held by the neck guide while the vessels are fed by the feed conveyor.
There has also heretofore been known a gripper for holding the neck of a bottle made of resin by gripping the neck on its opposite sides, as disclosed in Patent document 4, though the gripper has nothing to do with an electron beam sterilization apparatus. The disclosed gripper has two arms with gripping teeth on respective ends thereof for holding the neck of a bottle by tightening the opposite sides thereof.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-1212
Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 1-19190
Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-214300
Patent document 4: Japanese Patent No. 3787328